Our Common Cravings

Having spent much of May hanging out in the USA, and now trying to process what all went on back home in Nelson, there are a few things that just keep rising to the surface.

One of these is the realisation that there isn't a human being that doesn't want to somehow find the things that are truly real in this world. What can we trust? Who really cares about us? What is our value? These are the questions that Erwin MacManus wrestles with in his book "Soul Cravings". I am now asking myself these questions all the time and finding that most of the people I talk to are at any given moment considering these too.

Jesus speaks of the fact that everyone is building something, some construct that gives their life meaning, intimacy and purpose. He encourages us to consider whether we are building in such a way that when the inevitable storms come we are able to stand and not collapse. Jesus boldly asserts that to build life upon his example, essentially doing the things that he did, will mean we will be able to face any crisis, and stand through it.

I really long to be that resiliant. I want to last the distance in the things that really matter. I also want to be a voice for the promise of Jesus. The promise that anyone can walk with him into a life that is full of trust, love and hope.

One of Jesus' early followers, Paul, spoke to a group of philosophers in Athens, talking together about who they trusted to make sense of the world. Paul spoke of the God made visible in the life of Jesus, and that in fact even after his death, the spirit of Jesus remains alive and active wooing people to the God who imagined them in the first place. He says that within every human being is the seed of that forever-imagining. It was clear to Paul, and Jesus, that those who choose to search, and not just settle for unsatisfactory answers, will find what they are really looking for. This quest fuels our humanness - to be a people who are secure in what and who we trust, known by the love we give and receive, finding hope in the journey and voicing it to the world around us. That quest seems so worth living for.

I incredibly appreciate the people who are attempting to create environments for this to occur. Mosaic in LA are a community that it seems to me are making every effort to embody this quest. Their website is worth visiting to get a sense of how this plays out where they are (www.mosaic.org) but also to stir our imagination for what it might be like in our home communities. I'm looking forward to living out the journey in Nelson, New Zealand.